Wei Wang, the principal investigator on the grant, expects that his project will address current barriers to underground communications, particularly for the U.S. mining industry.
Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science in the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering (WCOE) at Texas Tech University has been awarded $267,907 by the National Science Foundation for his project “Collaborative Research: CCSS: Vision-Structured Photonic Communication and Sensing Integration Systems.”
“Right now there are no communication techniques that perform underground,” Wang said. “The signals are simply blocked.”
Not only does wireless radio-frequency (RF) communication perform poorly, due to signal issues related to structural barriers, RF systems pose significant risk due to the potential for ignition of flammable gases or explosions.
Wang proposes to develop a system that utilizes light as the carrier wave instead of RF. Light communication is intrinsically safe, because it produces no electrical sparks and has insufficient power density to ignite methane or combustible dust. Light also has potential in this environment because it is already part of the existing infrastructure in underground mines.
Wang will utilize both fixed and mobile light sources to carry the wireless signal. As the light sources encounter obstacles, he will use a simultaneous localization and mapping technique to develop a real-time three-dimensional map of the underground space to build a channel model to support visible light communication.
This real-time mapping and channel set-up will adjust the communication signals based on what the signal encounters as it moves through space. “For example, a miner’s headlamp can be equipped with this technology, and as he moves back and forth in the mine the communications signal adjusts to bypass the obstacles and improve the reliability of communication,” Wang explained.
For safety reasons, Wang and his co-investigators from St. Louis University will test this methodology in the Missouri S&T Experimental Mine using fixed and mobile robots, equipped with light carrier transmitters.
Wang expects that this advancement will have significant impact for mining operations, in both safety and work operations efficiency.
“Dr. Wang’s research represents exactly the kind of interdisciplinary, high-impact work that we strive to advance in the Department of Computer Science”, said Yong Chen, chair of the Department of Computer Science. “By bringing together computer vision, photonic communication, sensing, robotics, and AI, this project has the potential to fundamentally improve how people and autonomous systems communicate and operate in challenging underground environments. Most importantly, it addresses a critical real-world need and makes underground operations safer and more reliable.”